Schlesinger Library provides unprecedented support for discovery within its collections

2016 Grant recipients announced as more than $86,500 awarded to support new insights into American history

The Schlesinger Library at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study has awarded more than $86,500 to fund projects that explore the library’s vast holdings on the lives of remarkable and everyday women and families in America. Supporting the work of students, scholars, and writers alike, this year’s grant funding is at its highest level in a decade.

“For more than 70 years, the Schlesinger has documented American history. We step in to collect unique materials and also step back to let students and scholars use our collections to make their own important discoveries,” said Jane Kamensky, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute and a professor in the History Department at Harvard. “This year’s grant recipients will bring fresh approaches to our world-class holdings, including not only the papers of extraordinary women, such as the pioneering abolitionists of the Beecher family and the civil rights activists Pauli Murray and June Jordan, but also the lives of everyday soldiers, scientists, and suffragists. Together, these researchers from around the world will uncover and document the breadth of American lives, backgrounds, experiences, and ideas.”